Fill other questions from a text answer

Some visitors would rather tell you about themselves than click through five questions. With Fill other questions from this answer, a Short text or Long text question reads what someone wrote and picks the matching answers to your choice questions. They join the same segments a click would put them in, your flow can branch on those answers, and you don't have to ask what they've already told you.

WorkForge (opens in a new tab) could ask, "What makes project handoffs difficult for your team?" Someone who writes "There are four of us, and we run every client project out of spreadsheets and email threads" can get 2–5 people for "How big is your team?" and Spreadsheets, docs, or email for "How do you currently manage projects?"

Choose the questions to fill

1. Open Questions, select your Short text or Long text question, and open Setup. You'll find the same settings when you edit the question from a flow.
2. Under Fill other questions from this answer, choose Choose a question to fill and pick a question. Use Add another question for more. One answer can fill up to 10 questions.
3. Under How sure should RightMessage be?, choose Very sure, Fairly sure, or Somewhat sure.

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Long text question set to fill two other questions, with answer hints for team size and the Fairly sure confidence levelOriginalOriginal

The list includes every choice question and segment group that has answers. Each one shows its question wording, or the group's name when no question asks it, with its first few answers underneath. To stop filling one, select the × beside it.

Fairly sure is the default. RightMessage fills an answer only when it's at least 90% sure with Very sure, 80% with Fairly sure, or 65% with Somewhat sure. Less sure fills more answers, with more mistakes. Otherwise, it leaves that question for the visitor to answer.

Teach it the words your visitors use

Choose Hints beside a question to list words or phrases that mean each of its answers. WorkForge could add "a few of us" and "small team" to 2–5 people. Press Enter or type a comma between them. Each answer takes up to 10 hints, and the button shows how many you've added, such as Hints (2).

Hints are optional, and they only apply when filling from this text question. Visitors never see them.

Try a sample answer

Under Try it, write an answer a visitor might give and choose Try this answer. Each question you're filling shows the answer RightMessage picked and how sure it was, such as "2–5 people (99% sure)".

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Try it box with a sample answer about four people using spreadsheets, filling team size and project toolsOriginalOriginal

When it isn't sure enough to fill a question, you'll see Not filled. Best guess: with the answer it leaned toward. Can't tell from this answer means nothing in the text pointed to any answer. Try a lower confidence or a few hints, then try again.

Try it uses the settings on your screen, including changes you haven't published. It doesn't record a response or update anything. If you try a lot of answers in a short time, wait a minute before trying again.

What visitors experience

When a visitor submits their text, RightMessage reads it before moving on. It waits up to 2 seconds. If it can't read the answer in time, or anything else goes wrong, the flow carries on without filling anything.

Filled answers work like answers the visitor chose:

• They join that answer's segment, so personalization, conditions, and the rest of the flow can use it. A question node right after the text question can branch on a filled answer.
• With the widget's Question handling set to Ask questions we don't know the answer to, RightMessage won't ask a question it's already filled. See ask returning visitors only for missing answers.
• If you've mapped the question to a field or tag, the filled answer syncs to your email platform for identified contacts.

A filled answer never replaces one the visitor picked themselves. If they've already answered that question, their answer stays. If they answer it later, their choice replaces the filled one.

If the visitor goes back and answers the text question again, RightMessage clears what it filled from their earlier text and reads the new answer instead.

If your project waits for cookie consent, RightMessage doesn't read text answers until the visitor accepts. Visitors who decline still answer the text question, but nothing gets filled.

To read an answer, RightMessage sends the visitor's text, with the questions and answers you've chosen, to the AI model that picks the answers. The text isn't added to analytics. The answer itself is saved in Responses, like any text answer.

Check it on your site

1. Choose Preview on your site and answer the text question the way a visitor would.
2. In the debugger, look at the segment groups you filled. Each one says where its answer came from, such as "Inferred from What makes project handoffs difficult for your team? (99% confident)".
3. When the right answers show up, publish your changes.

It's working when a visitor's own words put them in the segments you'd expect. Next, use those segments to branch your flow or show them something more relevant.